Gerunds

I learn the english grammar of gerunds in this week.

1.When the -ing form behaves like a noun, it is called a gerund.Cycling,reading,looking and doing are gerunds. When you want to describe an action or an activity, you can use a gerund.

George prefers swimming to running.
Playing TV games is fun.
Please stop talking.
The film is about gambling.

Gerunds are uncountable. You cannot make them plural and you cannot use the articles a/an with them. There are many ways of using gerunds in sentences.

Gerunds can be the:

* subject of a sentence.

Reading builds your imagination.
Swimming is fun.
Smoking damages your health.

* object of a verb.

Edmond enjoys singing.
Everyone lifes sleeping.
Let's go shoppong.

* object of a preposition.

I'm good at drawing.
This book is about living in Asia.
Sam isn't interested in dancing.

2. You can use the preposition by + gerund to say how something is done.

In spoken English, When you answer a question, you can use the short form by + gerund. In written English, you usually use a complete sentence. Look at the examples below.

A: How did you become so strong?
B: By lifting weights./I became strong by lifting weights.

A: How did you find this flat?
B: By looking in a newspaper./We found it by looking in a newspaper.

A: How did you learn about computers?
B: By surfing the Net and playing computer games./Ilearnt about computers by surfing the Net and playing computer games.

You can use several gerunds in same sentence.

You can improve your English by studying books, listening to English on the radio and television,reading English books and newpapers and speaking English with your friends and family.